Cod Almighty | Diary

Who let the DOGSO out?

20 October 2025

Miss Guest Diary writes: How is it possible that I left Blundell Park on Saturday feeling frustrated and vaguely furious? Town had just won, kept a clean sheet, were up to third in the table again…but…but…. Was I being greedy? Expecting another goalfest against nine men as had happened in the Cheltenham game? No – even I could see that Gillingham were a better side. What I actually wanted, which didn't seem unreasonable at the time – and still doesn't – was for Town to take one of the many, many opportunities they created to get a second goal so I didn't have to spend the last ten minutes of the game in a state of high anxiety fearing the opposition would equalise every time they got anywhere near Town’s box.

Undoubtedly there is an element of false memory caused by stress, but after Gillingham went down to nine men it seemed to me that Town spent the last third of the game indulging in back heels and over-elaborate passing routines which never looked like resulting in a goal. Stop showboating, just get in the box and score!

A couple of days' reflection has allowed me to take a more balanced view. Even though my nerves were screaming something else, my head tells me that, after the Gillingham keeper's speculative punt which drew a great save from Pym in the first five minutes, Town were in no real danger of conceding even against 11 men, let alone nine. Every single Gillingham long throw or corner found its way to Greeny's head, and they had no other tactic. I need to accept that maybe Town aren't that team any more – the one who can't see out a 1-0 lead, the one who always concede late in the game. Could it be that the Parslow Point is finally a thing of the past?

I listened to a podcast last week which suggested that social media is dead. Not if you're a football fan – too many schadenfreude opportunities available. Last week, after we lost to Colchester, Town fans were bemoaning bad refs but only in a very mild way compared to the absolute meltdown by Gillingham fans over the weekend. I loved the Twitter, sorry X, post from someone who'd asked AI to analyse the first sending off and posted a veritable novella which, rather hilariously, kept using the term DOGSO (I'll leave you to work out the acronym – or you could ask Grok). And here's a lovely little montage created by the folks at the DN35 pod for your Monday morning amusement.

I don't follow the Grimsby women's team – somehow I've never got into women's football – but I couldn't help noticing that yesterday they beat Ropsley Ladies 15-0 in the County Cup. They were 7-0 up at half time so they could certainly be forgiven if they indulged in a bit of showboating in the second half, but somehow I suspect they just got on with the job of scoring as many goals as they could.

UTM